Browsing Tag

Lena Dunham

The Leading Ladies of the Oscars

oscar issue

–Viola Davis, Chloé Zhao and Regina King are on Entertainment Weekly’s Oscars issue. I have serious arm envy right now…

–Demi Lovato detailed what really went down between her and ex-fiance Max Ehrich. In her doc, she says “We were only together four to five months, and like, honestly, it was false advertising.” She added that starting to date in quarantine accelerated the relationship. “I think I rushed into something that I thought was what I was supposed to do. I realized as time went on that I didn’t actually know the person that I was engaged to…It was 2020. You didn’t get to ‘normally date’ like you do.”

–Ray Fisher spilled some tea in the new THR, and said he had to explain to Joss Whedon “some of the most basic points of what would be offensive to the Black community,” to which Whedon replied “It feels like I’m taking notes right now, and I don’t like taking notes from anybody — not even Robert Downey Jr.” Gal Gadot and Jason Momoa reportedly had similar experiences with the director, and a source told THR: “Joss was bragging that he’s had it out with Gal. He told her he’s the writer and she’s going to shut up and say the lines and he can make her look incredibly stupid in this movie.”

-The article was not just about Whedon. It also talks about former DC Entertainment President and Chief Creative Officer Geoff John. Apparently before Bridgeton, Regé-Jean Page did not advance in the casting process for SYFY’s Krypton because Johns said Superman could not have a Black grandfather, and he also prevented the Krypton creators from making one of the characters, Adam Strange, gay or bisexual.

-Meanwhile, Regé-Jean Page was reportedly offered an opportunity to return to Bridgerton as a guest star in three to five episodes of season two — at a rate of $50,000 an episode — but declined.

–Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s first Netflix project will be a docuseries on the Invictus Games.

-I’m sorry, but Angelina Jolie as an elite wilderness firefighter looks a little ridiculous.

-Meanwhile, Angelina Jolie and Diplo were spotted at the same BBQ.

-Congrats to Henry Golding, who’s a new dad.

–Kate Winslet says she knows “at least four” closeted actors who are “terrified” to come out, adding ‘a well-known actor’ was recently instructed by their agent to keep their bisexuality a secret.

–Sheryl Underwood says she and Sharon Osbourne haven’t spoken since their confrontation on The Talk.

–Lena Dunham debuts her new project: a plus-size clothing line. Which is all well and good (though sizes only go to 26) and the positioning of the NYT article is very weird.

–Jimmy Fallon welcomed TikTok dance creators to his show after the Addison Rae backlash.

–James Charles has apologized for poor behavior. Again.

–Aaron Rodgers and Shailene Woodley did an IG video together to celebrate his Jeopardy guest hosting stint.

-The showrunner of the CBS sitcom The Neighbors has stepped down, saying “At this moment, in light of everything going on in the world, I had concluded that I am not the right person to continue to tell these stories.” The move comes after two Black writers reportedly left the show over race-related issues.

–Andrew Garfield plays a charismatic stranger who helps a woman become an internet sensation in the trailer for Mainstream.

Taylor Swift Continues To Be A Content Machine

-Has anyone been more productive during this pandemic than Taylor Swift? She announced this morning that she has re-recorded her entire Fearless album which has 26 songs, including 6 never before released songs from the vault. She’s releasing a new version of Love Story at midnight.

–Meghan Markle scored a big win today. A judge ruled in her favour, saying the Mail On Sunday invaded her privacy by publishing a private letter from her to her father.

–Shia LaBeouf denies “each and every allegation” in FKA twigs‘ domestic abuse lawsuit against him. LaBeouf’s attorneys also requested that she be required to pay his legal costs, because of course they did.

-Vanity Fair’s fascinating new story on the Hillsong church reveal that the scandal is bigger than one fame-obsessed pastor.

-Speaking of new stories, take it with a grain of salt but DeuxMoi is now posting blinds about the LA Times’ story on Armie Hammer being killed because it got too complicated (but that another outlet may be working on something).

-Meanwhile, Page Six claims Hammer allegedly gave Jessica Ciencin Henriquez the big bruise she posted on Instagram during their brief summer romance.

–Emma Caulfield and Clare Kramer are the latest Buffy alums to support Charisma Carpenter‘s statement calling out Joss Whedon‘s on-set abuse. It’s been a day and the male actors who’ve worked with Whedon have remained conspicuously silent. (Some of their reputations may hint at why.)  The only guy who seems to have addressed it so far is Anthony Head, who played Giles. He told a morning show he had no idea and felt like he “let down” his costars: “I have been up most of the night just running through my memories thinking ‘What did I miss?’. This is not a man saying ‘I didn’t see it so it didn’t happen’. I am gutted, I’m seriously gutted because one of my memories, my fondest memory was the fact that it was so empowering.”

-This is a good piece on Ryan Reynolds and his side-hustle prowess.

-Much like everyone calls Anne Hathaway “Annie,” Katherine Heigl says everyone in her life calls her “Katie.” “No one calls me Katherine…It helps me separate my work from me.”

–Rihanna has recognized that we’re all into sweatpants over luxury fashion right now. She and LVMH made the decision to put the ready-to-wear Fenty division on hold.

-In Variety’s latest Directors on Directors interview, Ben Affleck asked David Fincher about why he makes actors go through a “relentless” amount of takes.

-Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s long-delayed new season will be its last.

-Here’s the first look of Jodie Turner-Smith as one of the most famous figures in history, Tudor Queen Anne Boleyn.

-This is an excellent feature on The Shining’s reclusive star Shelley Duvall.

-On today’s earning call, Disney said Black Widow is still intended for a theatrical release, but they’ll be watching “very, very closely” to see if consumer behavior changes.

-Yesterday I asked what it would take for Disney to fire Gina Carano from The Mandalorian. Apparently, it was social media posts comparing the treatment of Republicans to Jews in Nazi Germany. Lucasfilms called her posts “abhorrent and unacceptable” and her talent agency, UTA, also dumped her.

–Morgan Wallen posted a 5-minute video to fans, saying he’s 9 days sober after his N-word outburst.

–Kevin Hart’s personal shopper got a little too personal — he allegedly spent more than $1 million buying himself luxury goods using the star’s credit cards.

–Chris Harrison has apologized for comments he made during a recent interview with former Bachelorette Rachel Lindsay. “I now realize I have done is cause harm by wrongly speaking in a manner that perpetuates racism and for that I am so deeply sorry.”

–Dolly Parton will reunite with her 9-to-5 costars when she guests on Grace and Frankie.

-Vulture says Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar is weirdo cinema all the way, filled with non sequiturs, oblique cutaways, and an impressive level of commitment to the bit from its stars. I’m so curious about this one…

-Here’s the first trailer for HBO Max’s Generation, a new teen drama produced by Lena Dunham​.

Jennifer Lopez Shines with Short Hair

jlo allure short hair

-I love Jennifer Lopez’s pixie cut on the cover of Allure, but I’m assuming it’s a wig since her locks were flowing at the Super Bowl last weekend.

-In her cover story with Health magazine, Rosario Dawson opens up about raising her 17-year-old adopted daughter from age 11. “To have a young person move in with you and to have to really consciously work through triggers and that kind of stuff is a really different thing than being pregnant and having your baby grow up in front of you—to be able to see how we’re getting closer and closer. We are a family, and it’s beautiful.”

-This is a great piece on Chadwick Boseman, who covers Vanity Fair’s Awards Extra issue.

-I have never written a story a quickly as I did this one about Charisma Carpenter calling out Joss Whedon for a hostile and abusive work environment because I didn’t need to look up any dates or details. Buffy fans have heard these rumours for years, and know what she’s previously alluded to at conventions. It felt like it was only a matter of time after Ray Fisher‘s allegations, not to mention Whedon abruptly leaving his HBO series before it premiered, for this all to come out. Since Carpenter’s tweets, Buffy alum Tara Benson called the show “a toxic environment,” Michelle Trachtenberg said Whedon’s behaviour towards her teen self was “not appropriate,” while Sarah Michelle Gellar gave a more vague statement about not wanting to be forever associated with his name.

–Shia LaBeouf just parted ways with his agency, CAA. He’s been receiving treatment for over five weeks, a source tells Variety, and the actor is currently living at an inpatient facility.

-HBO Max has a straight-to-series order for an adult-focused animated Scooby-Doo origin story about Velma, from exec producer Mindy Kaling, who will also lend her voice in the lead role.

–Princess Eugenie and her husband, Jack Brooksbank, welcomed a baby boy.

-The legal battle over Britney Spears and her conservatorship is set to return to court this week, days after a New York Times documentary outlined the ongoing legal battle. Spears is reportedly hopeful the doc will help turn the tide.

-I really liked this piece on the Britney doc’s structure and why giving it a linear timeline was the correct framing device.

-Speaking of the Britney doc, I loved this piece on how Justin Timberlake should apologize for weaponizing his relationship with women. “Timberlake got to do whatever he wanted for years. Someone let this man do a full minute of mediocre beatboxing in ‘Rock Your Body’ and then we went out and bought the album and thought, Yes, I want to hear this at every wedding I go to for the rest of my life. But he didn’t do any of this alone; he just learned his lesson well: that you can be taller if you stand on the shoulders of a woman with no protection. For many of us, it was easier to just let him win.”

–Esmé Bianco says Marilyn Manson whipped and scarred her on a music video set, and once chased her around their apartment with an axe.

-Our first look at Elle Fanning in season two of The Great show our Empress with a bun in the over.

–Lena Dunham had to release a statement on the use of real cat corpses in her HBO Max’s show Generation, denying knowledge of the incident. She said “I don’t use animal cadavers in any of my work, ever, and I was not on set or aware that they were used in a recently shot scene depicting a biology classroom assignment.”

–Reese Witherspoon was spotted visiting Laura Dern on her birthday.

-#FireGinaCarano is trending worldwide on social media after Gina Carano shared a post that compared being a Republican to being a Jew during the Holocaust. Seriously, how long is Disney going to let her keep doing this stuff? Don’t most talent contracts have a morality clause?

-Here’s the latest trailer for Nomadland.